1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to data networks in general and, in particular, to regeneration of the recording state of digital files stored in nodes of a data network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Media data, such as audio recordings and films, can nowadays be effectively archived in a digital format. Such media data is used for commercial, educational, and scientific purposes. In the case of large archives, the number of records (i.e., individual audio or video recordings) can be very large. Additionally, the size of digitized media files, especially video data converted to high quality digital format, is large (it may be in the order of terabytes, comprising a 1 hour long digital movie recording at resolutions of 2 k, 4 k, and higher), and in consequence archives of media files require large memory space. The digitized media can be stored on various carriers including, for example, CD, DVD, Blue Ray, HD DVD, hard disks, and others (e.g., magnetic tapes).
For large organizations (e.g., national archives, television and radio archives, museums, libraries of multimedia) using hard disks and, in general, purely electronic memories and memories designed as a combination of electronic devices and micro- or nanomechanical devices for storing media data is very useful as it does not require any manual or mechanical operations to be performed in order to access the stored files. As a result they can be accessed from remote locations (e.g., collocation or safety centers) via a telecommunications or data communications network.
The problem faced by some organizations is that the multimedia files should be archived for long or undefined time periods, for example if these are classified as a part of national heritage.
As mentioned above, files can be stored on various carriers or devices, which make it possible to record data. In the case of data networks, operating as repositories or digital media libraries with a constantly growing number of files, the most practical solution is using different types of purely electronic mass memories or electronic mass memories combined with micro- or nanomechanical devices.
The problem of any data storage medium is that it has a limited lifetime. With time the data stored on such a medium can be damaged or its readability may become worse due to natural aging processes of the carrier on which the data is written, or due to changes of values of the data recording state parameters related to physical contact of the carrier with the external environment.